Ron’s Ramblings…

By Ron Signore

Though I am still convinced that no one actually changes their opinions and viewpoints from memes and social media forum arguments, some of the content still gets very much under my skin.

The stars aligned this morning in one area that help drive the irking. I woke up to my daily version of the Wall Street Journal that had a piece on the improving job situation in our country. An unemployment rate of 5.4%, essentially cut in half from a year ago, is going the right direction. In the corporate world, the effects are very apparent. Outside of my 9-5 (which let’s face it, I am in sales, it is more like a 7 AM to 9 PM job), I help an organization get their new ASD therapy solution to the market and also provide direction for another start up in Change Management. All 3 jobs are recruiting for talent and in all honesty, offering good market value compensation along with the roles they are hiring for. Connecting with other professionals who are also hiring, they have claimed the luck finding candidates right now is tough because it is a worker’s market.

Much like a sellers’ market for home buying right now, competition is high for very sourcing top talent candidates. The candidate is in more control now than ever, which is causing companies to cough up more in comp and benefits than ever before. It is unreal. There are so many good opportunities out there and not that many candidates.
This notion brings me positive outlooks as to where we are going as a country. Republicans will never acknowledge it, but it is undeniable.

Taking a morning mental breather, I decided to get on ZuckerBook and I saw an umpire friend of mine share a post from some random tool…the core message was that a restaurant was asking people to tip their servers well because they are short staffed because no one wants to work anymore with all the government handouts. First of all, restaurant workers get paid minimum wage and with an industry based on tips, the laws around fair pay haven’t been updated in years. Second, minimum wage is barely livable if at all. Finally, this is an example of a business making a political issue out of something that should not be.

The overarching fact of 1/20 people being unemployed tells me enough that people are working and want to work. The caveat is maybe they do not want to work for “you;” or in an industry that is so outdated in its worker protection laws. Maybe you are a jerk as a boss, or you run a cluster of a business that is chaotic. We cannot dismiss entirely that there are people that play the system, it is inevitable no matter the circumstance, but let’s not go the opposite way and condemn all of those not working for being lazy people who just want a handout.

The truth is even unemployment isn’t that great to live on, and the people who really need it are typically those who were laid off high paying jobs, so that doesn’t cover the nut anyway. But it is necessary. In some way, shape or form, money needs to be circulated back into the economy so people can keep local restaurants open, so people can have jobs. These businesses that throw it at the government like that should reflect to see if maybe 19/20 competitors are having the same problem- and if they are, is it really because the government is paying people not to work, or is it a result of anything previously discussed?

Growing up in the time I did and coming out of college in 2009 where the job market was rough and businesses themselves were closing, I saw more people of the same socio-economic class skip going to work to travel or just hold out until they could find some sort of dream landing spot. While they may not have collected unemployment, truth be told, they didn’t have to. They came from money. They came from families who could support their decision to chase their dreams- to some extent. The main message behind the sign posted on Facebook is toned to Americans, or individuals, who choose to get paid not to work. Sure, there are some ethics where people can and should probably suck it up to take a lower paying job and keep hunting for one more suited for them, but take experience, occupational skills and overall living picture into consideration. If organizations don’t want to battle that, compensate your employees better. If people are choosing not to work for you, that should be a flag anyway, but if they are able to live off the government as opposed to work at all, you should be in a panic state trying to resolve that instead of casting blame to it. I would like to note, I am aware there are people who live off the government with disability or other programs where that is the only choice. Any image or message conveyed here needs to be found within the realm of being outside of that conditional box.

It is time we treated our employees better. With so many forums to put an organization on blast for poor pay, standards or conditions, your business will not make it if you stay the same while the world changes. Corporate America has very much moved this way, learning from the mistakes from the ghosts of companies past. It is time for certain industries and certain businesses to catch up.

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